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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Now here's a way to get that spinach in...

If you're a fan of making dinners ahead of time and stashing them in the freezer to pull out for those hectic nights, you may want to try out these Spinach-Feta Turnovers I made for dinner tonight!

Wrapped inside a golden blanket is a mess of chopped onions and garlic cloves that have been softened in a couple tablespoons worth of olive oil. To those vegetables, a healthy dose of thawed frozen spinach is added. Now, I know I've mentioned this trick before, but in case you haven't seen it, I like to use our potato ricer to squeeze out the excess liquid from the spinach. I just find it less messy and more efficient that using a towel or pressing the spinach in a colander.

To add a salty bite, a couple cups of crumbled feta is added along with a few tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to brighten up the flavors. You don't have to add the dash of cayenne, but it brought added interest as there is a ton of spinach being used. If you like the spinach and nutmeg combination, a few fresh grates from a whole nutmeg might be nice. You will use both sheets of puff pastry that are included in the package (I love the newer Artisan Puff Pastry from Trader Joe's - all butter!) - once stretched out, each piece is divided into quarters and filled with a heaping mound of the spinach mixture. A light egg wash around two edges and the pastry is folded over to create tidy triangles.

You will get 8 hearty servings from this - you can cook all of them at once, or do as we did and wrap four of them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. You can then pull them out as needed and have a freshly baked turnover - you will just need to add 5 or 10 minutes to the total baking time. With their buttery, flaky enclosures, these appetizing turnovers really hit the spot this evening with a light salad on the side.

4 comments:

Mmmmmm spinach and carbs! Whoever came up with that combination is a genius. Though your carbs are rather decadent! Did you HAVE to bring up Trader Joe's???!! I guess I'll just go to their site for a fix.....